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Hey everyone... I've been putting together a sound system since March...
it's been a long project cause I could only afford each part only if a ridiculously good deal on craigslist popped up (rss feeds FTW).
Now I am on the stage with actually putting the hardware together on an instep trailer with my brother who is very good with his hands... Making sure the amplifier is padded in the best way possible to be protected from all the shocks and jolts of a typical LA bike ride and so forth..
Anyway.. this thing will be very loud, with very strong bass output as well.. overall the full-range of sound will be really clean sounding, I've put a lot of thought and money into choosing the components to make it capable of providing music for the largest of rides. It also weighs about 160lbs :o ... I got a sweet mandem.. errr.. tandem bike :-p to make it even more fun towing it with my brother, hehe. Plus, it will be my camps sound system at burning man... :-D
I know I'm going to be lowering the volume to near zero if I see cops nearby, or lowering it significantly if we are going through quiet residential areas in the early morning hours cause I don't wanna be a dick.
The rule, found here says that if it can be heard beyond 50ft, that's a violation.
A sound system in the open air can easily be heard beyond 50ft... soooooo has a cop ever cited someone with a bicycle sound system? Or at least harassed them or warned them? Any heads up on any potential legal issues anyone has encountered regarding this topic is much appreciated.
Oh yeah! another thing... I'm going to try to get a microphone (hopefully a wireless one), to be able to yell things out like turns or whatnot...
I know on mixers, you have the option of the volume of the music automatically getting lower if it detects sound coming from the microphone... but I wonder, are there any devices that could do that, without a mixer... I gotta do some research on that... otherwise I will be manually lowering the music volume if I need to use the mic, hehe.
I've been on lots of rides where there were loud sound system's bumping and never seen anybody get hassled.
Yours sounds really special, but could it possibly be more disturbing than what ppl pack into an H2? That shit sets off car alarms.
I have a feeling that the cops would be dis-inclined to hassle you unless
a) they are dicks
b) the ride is behaving in a particularly unsafe or unruly manner.
if you fade it down when you see them hawking, that should be enough.
please consider bringing your awesome sound system to
the World's biggest Bike Song (August MR) >>>>>>>>>>>
It would be fucking awesome!!!!!!
thank you for the info! omg that ride looks AMAZING, hahaha great theme... I will DEFINITELY bring it out for that one... it should be completely complete well before then and I should have some practice towing it. <3
Antranik responding to a comment by trickmilla
08.3.10 - 10:18 am
is it ac? it prolly comes with an AC adapter
check http://www.behringer.com/EN/home.aspx
they prolly have something that will work for you and they make the best shit for the least money.
It's very expensive at $130-160.. and since it's not a crucial piece, more of a luxury and convenience, I will setup an RSS feed for it on craigslist in case someone is selling it for much cheaper. Even random items like this always prop up much to my surprise on CL.
Or if anyone has a device like this they want to donate that would be tight :p
I'll post some pictures of our progress so far... my brother and I were working on it for like 8 hours until midnight when we called it a day.
Antranik responding to a comment by jeffwr3
08.4.10 - 8:42 am
This is a project my brother and I have been working on for a while now but I decided to take pics yesterday, hehe.
We took an instep trailer, stripped it of everything but it's frame.. removed the wheels and started working on it.... we put a (mock) wooden floor... and made a wooden bracket that will retain the sub... then my brother realized that when the wheels are on, and its affixed to the rear axle of the bicycle, that it is designed to tilt the front end up so our floor wouldn't be flat anymore... DOH!
It was now level.. but now the center of gravity was raised by a few inches... and that front bracket that would retain the sub box, couldn't be used anymore... errr...
if you'll notice, even with the elevated floor.. it is STILL lower than what the original frame chassis is used for.. we wanted to utilize the width-wise bars of the frame rather than the length-wise because they dip a few inches lower. soooooo we tried to find other solutions
soooo we tried heating up the steel arm that attaches to the rear axle and pounding it away with a hammer to change the angle... it wouldn't budge... i think cause it was a hollow-tube and the hammer-pounding-method wasn't gonna cut it...
hmmm so we kept thinking about the mounting location... and made a slightly larger hole... a ghetto ass hole... heheh... but it helped adjust the angle perfectly so we didn't need to elevate the floor on one side! YAY!
now for the floor! we just installed this for the first time..
we had to cut the corners of the wood (and the middle has some cut outs) t to get it to slide in
the wooden floor is very solid 3/4" hardwood that barely bends if i stand on it and bounce it... it has a bit of overhang too, we have a lot of floor space to work with now ;)
the next step was to put the speakers on and see how we can secure it...
we put the subwoofer box on there, it fit nice and perfectly with the bracket...
then we took our badass klipsch speakers, and cut some wood to fit it perfectly and screwed it into the speaker box and cut a large hole in it to act as a handle so we could pull it off an on safely. then we made some tiny holes that will allow our tie-down straps to go through it)...
these 2 speaker components got held down with a ratcheting tie-down strap. it's my first time using these tie-downs and they are tight...
and that was like 8 hours of work yesterday...
i gotta go to the hardware store again to get some random washers and different screws to replace what we got and cut some more wood..
TO BE CONTINUED (hopefully today or tomorrow work permitting)
yea me too!!! :D hehe... i see your custom system! I had one setup on my rear rack, it was just a ghetto boombox.. it's weird when the bike is all top-heavy huh? makes getting on and off the bike a bit challenging, hehe
Antranik responding to a comment by elmeromero
08.4.10 - 10:57 am
okay... so i'll continue with posting my progress.. i wish i could keep going but i have to cut wood again and it's 3am and it will definitely wake some people up, lol
I went to the hardware store to get some proper screws and washers and replaced them... and then i connected the trailer up to the bicycle again and lo and behold the floor overhang is too long and hits the rear wheel OOOOPPPPPS... so I removed everything and cut off 2 inches from the floor, YES.
AND WITH THIS STICK... I BEAT PEOPLE... no actually, i just finished cutting this metal piece to the proper length to reinforce the frame upon my brothers suggestion
there's a shot from underneath the new piece... i can't believe i got the perfect hairline gap between the box and the metal... i guess being a ocd-cat is a good thing sometimes! :p
all right, so.. time to start working on mounting the amplifier next..
i put some foam (the ones used for sound absorption on studio walls) underneath and above the amp...
my brother had previously created the wooden panel that would go on top of it already... but it was hitting those vertical rods... so i just cut the corners out so it fit around that area BETTERRRRRRRRRRRR..
i probably woke up some people in the house for sure during that cutting process... eep!
there's a lower view with a sprite box adding some weight to even out the foam.. the amplifier is cushioned nicely...
but that top wooden piece is not secured at ALL..... YET!
tomorrow i gotta cut some 2x4's to connect the top floor to the bottom floor and attach the rear of the amp to the wood so it will actually have play to pivot in case of crazy bumps and jolts and shocks... so yeah, tolerance is a good thing, a happy amplifier is a happy me.
It does the same thing, plus more, but its still about $100 bucks and has a mixer attached. You can even hook up a real turntable to this!
I am only offering to you solutions that will run on 12 volts DC (standard lead-acid car or motorcycle battery voltage), there are cheaper solutions, but they need 120 Volts A/C.
I need a ducking device that runs off 120v AC power... what kind of suggestion do you have for that? I'm happy to hear they would be a cheaper solution!
Antranik responding to a comment by jeffwr3
08.6.10 - 12:28 pm
25-gauge aluminum, thigh-bended, meaning, bended with my brothers thigh, haha, and then held with L-brackets at the ends, to create... FENDERS... or as my friend says, FENDARRSSSSSSSS!
how much power are you producing/using.
also do you have an exhaust vent for the generator, i dont think its truly a huge concern but it is potentially dangerous.
regardless looks awesome man. also have a great time with it at the burn.
I have a little powered studio monitor you can plug in (it takes a line level RCA or 1/4") .. it would be enough to help you hear the highs and mids better.
You can borrow before the bike song if you want to test it out.
first couple songs we played on our first test ride... haha! pretty clean sound for the full range of frequencies which was my goal (balanced bass/mid/highs)
Antranik responding to a comment by _iJunes
08.10.10 - 9:18 am
-->
Ridazz Roulette!
Try 
so we decided to elevate the part of the floor with 2x4's...
AND IT WAS LEVEL AGAIN... YAY!
It was now level.. but now the center of gravity was raised by a few inches... and that front bracket that would retain the sub box, couldn't be used anymore... errr...
soooo we tried heating up the steel arm that attaches to the rear axle and pounding it away with a hammer to change the angle... it wouldn't budge... i think cause it was a hollow-tube and the hammer-pounding-method wasn't gonna cut it...
now for the floor! we just installed this for the first time..
the next step was to put the speakers on and see how we can secure it...
awesome!!!! I gotta see this thing in action
okay... so i'll continue with posting my progress.. i wish i could keep going but i have to cut wood again and it's 3am and it will definitely wake some people up, lol
AND WITH THIS STICK... I BEAT PEOPLE... no actually, i just finished cutting this metal piece to the proper length to reinforce the frame upon my brothers suggestion
holes drilled... and the metal is installed successfully! it fits perfectly behind the sub box...
there's a shot from underneath the new piece... i can't believe i got the perfect hairline gap between the box and the metal... i guess being a ocd-cat is a good thing sometimes! :p
all right, so.. time to start working on mounting the amplifier next..
there's a lower view with a sprite box adding some weight to even out the foam.. the amplifier is cushioned nicely...
Dude, I hear ya!
cut four 2x4's into 6" pieces to act as the 2nd-floor above the amp... kind of a bitch getting them to be perfect height with a worn out jigsaw blade
mounted the rear of the amp with screws and rubber washers to the blocks to keep it in place.
there's the generator floor now mounted to the 2x4 blocks.
andddd we are pretty much done tying everything down with the ratchet straps. the red thing is a honda eu1000i 
going on the first test ride! it looks like a faise.
YAY FIRST TEST RIDE. NO RATTLES, NO VIBRATIONS, A BIT BOUNCY, ALL IS SAFE. <3
all right... side and front walls added to conceal the generator and make it more aerodynamic and the noise from it will be less
wheels painted white (they were black before when you look at previous pix)... now they look so much more badass
all the wood panels painted black now <3
another shot! <3
25-gauge aluminum, thigh-bended, meaning, bended with my brothers thigh, haha, and then held with L-brackets at the ends, to create... FENDERS... or as my friend says, FENDARRSSSSSSSS!
mmmmmmmmmmm secksy fenders.
ET VOILA , ++music trailer version 1.2
will debut on the worlds biggest bike song on 8.13.10
something like this, but in black. 